Barrelling through the iconic tunnel feature at the Monaco Grand Prix, Pete Aron, portrayed by Hollywood star James Garner, refuses to let his faster teammate Scott Stoddard (English actor Brian Bedford) pass. As the two exit the tunnel, the camera, which vibrates in rhythm to Garner’s car, switches between close-up shots of Garner, looking stubbornly resolute, to Bedford, sweating with anxiety, then back to a view from the nose of Garner’s car. The two are engaged in a close proximity dogfight. 

Suddenly, Garner’s face, with the camera still positioned on the nose of his car, explodes with panic. With the gearshift locked in place, a panic-stricken Garner raises his hand to warn Bedford of his car failure. But it’s too late; Bedford is too close. Garner slams on the brakes. The two touch wheels. Garner launches off the track and into the waiting arms of the Mediterranean while Bedford loses control, slams into the guardrail, and careens toward a cliff on the side of the track. The camera then switches between a side profile of Bedford fighting his out-of-control car to a distance shot of his car going airborne before returning to a close-up of Bedford upside down colliding with the cliff.     

“[Younger people] are so used to CGI being a tool of big movies that when you shoot something for real, it feels innovative,” Kosinski told The Wrap in a 2022 interview, where he discussed “Top Gun: Maverick” and the upcoming Formula 1 film.  

Vintage and, in turn, tangibility are in vogue. While it is far too soon to tell how the effects used in today’s movies will resonate with audiences thirty years from now, history tells us that a commitment to realism has a better chance of aging well. 

Image

Spectators along the track in Frankenheimer’s “Grand Prix” (1966). © Warner Brothers Entertainment

At this digital-first moment, younger audiences – and society at large – crave the feeling of tangibility, particularly as part of a resurging interest in vintage culture. Take record players for example; A once almost defunct relic from the time before streaming, these clunky devices have experienced a cult revival. Gen Z consumers, in particular, are most likely to purchase vinyl records, according to research from the Recording Industry Association of America.

Just reconsider “Grand Prix.” The movie feels so authentic and has withstood the test of time largely due to its commitment to realism. 

The sheer mix of different angles and styles – everything from the car-mounted shots and handheld 65mm frames to quick-cut inserts and magnificent helicopter footage – may seem familiar to audiences today, except in “Grand Prix” the execution is slower, more thoughtful, and more cinematic. With this intentional approach, the audience is given time to experience the sensation of driving a Formula 1 car. 

While “Grand Prix” is undoubtedly a cinematic artifact from a bygone era of moviemaking, the speed and intensity still feel palpable to modern audiences. Whether Hamilton and Pitt’s new film will last remains to be seen, but its commitment to realism suggests it could far outlive its CGI counterparts. 

As Bryan Curtis wrote in a 2016 cultural comment on film for the New Yorker, “We’ve reached a point where directors and audiences no longer derive authenticity from what looks ‘real’ but from what looked real … And real is an awfully flexible word.”